I loved this set of a dozen stories brought to life in Morgan Talty’s words. Each story is demonstrative of life as a Penobscot, in a Native community in Maine. One of my favorites is about a boy who opens a Pandora’s box kind of jar and lets out a curse that ruins his family. …
The Angel of Rome by Jess Walter One of the most popular authors at Madison Books, and one of my own favorites, Jess Walter is an infallibly engaging storyteller, equaled by few in that regard. More than that, he has a quality that even fewer writers share, that of continual reinvention—every book is different in …
Janelle Monáe returns to the dystopian cyberpunk world of her Dirty Computer album with The Memory Librarian, a collection of five long stories that further the narrative set forth in the album. While the New Dawn is intent on standardizing and homogenizing the future, a band of gender-nonconforming rebels persist in retaining, remembering, and celebrating the stories of …
“These unbroken stretches of consciousness, days sometimes blurring into one another, seems just a feature of modern life, not worth complaining about,” an insomniac remarks to herself. Kim Fu’s Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century is a collection of short stories that captures the modern sense of malaise that is now more pronounced, more intense, as …
Five stories and one novella that pack a punch! How does she make her stories feel like science fiction, present day reality and historical fiction all at once? I am looking forward to more from this original writer! –Nancy, Island Books, Mercer Island, WA This was one of Island Books’ top fiction books from …
Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin is a marvelous collection of short fiction imbued with the fiery independence and far-reaching vision of Le Guin. It’s lovely to see such passion persisting in Pacific Northwest storytelling. –A Good Book, Sumner, WA Explore literary legacies with books from A Good Book and …
… speaking of fantastic reads, Afterparties, Anthony Veasna So’s posthumous debut, arrives this week. Afterparties is a collection of loosely connected stories about Cambodian-Americans. They are all crafting new identities (or trying to find identities) in America, but the ghosts of the ancestors and the haunting memories of their homeland are never far away. So’s stories are both …
Jessica has been really excited to explore the continued allure of King Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table in these “remapped, reimagined, retold, intersectional, and diverse short stories. I’m also really looking forward to talking about this title in September with our King Arthur Remixed panel. I’ve been a King Arthur nerd …
An astronaut wakes up with amnesia, and discovers he is on a mission to save the world. This book is a return to what made The Martian such a great read. There’s a sarcastic but earnest narrator, many a life-threatening disaster, and so very much clearly and cleverly explained science. Once I started reading it, I could …
As a lifelong insomniac I am perpetually in search of anything that will help me drift off in a timely manner. This surprisingly soporific collection of cozy vignettes fits the bill perfectly. Full of richly written moments in which to lose yourself and interspersed with recipes and meditations, this book is like a collection of …
